{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","title":"How the individual invented the modern West","description":"The European Middle Ages have been deemed an era of regression but this couldn't be further from the truth. In this period, the foundations were laid to establish a liberal West centred around the rights of the individual. Read by Leighton Pugh.\n\nImage: Construction of highway, eighteenth century France Engineers on horseback inspecting the work, a painting Claude-Joseph Vernet, 1775. Credit: Lebrecht Music & Arts / Alamy Stock Photo.","author_name":"The EI Podcast","author_url":"https://audioboom.com/channels/5029938-the-ei-podcast","provider_name":"Audioboom","provider_url":"https://audioboom.com","width":480,"height":95,"thumbnail_url":"https://audioboom.com/i/40403806/600x600/c","thumbnail_width":600,"thumbnail_height":600,"html":""}